Silver and Gold
by balfonheim
Summary: No longer a child, Yuffie learns her last lesson, one that she will remember for a lifetime. [Squffie][one-shot]


**[a/n]** i wrote this as part of a story competition on . it tied with deplora's story, 'Now or Never', so i'm posting it here

_[Disclaimer: I own nothing. Nadda. NOTHING. So leave me alone ]_

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Yuffie sat at the edge of the water, dangling her petite feet into the icy depths. It was the morning of her eighteenth birthday. She had woken up at dawn with a sense of clarity she had never before experienced. It was almost as if her legality made sense of the confusion in her head and heart. She felt like a fresh, crisp page of blank paper, ready to finally begin to live.

The imposing figure of Squall Leonhart stood next to her; the proud lion remained silent, unable to think of anything to say. He had been Yuffie's mentor and tutor for years, putting up with the young ninja when nobody else would. Now he had to let her go into the world to forge her own way. Squall felt like he was losing part of himself.They were going to break the relationship between teacher and pupil, but neither had any idea on how to go about it. It wasn't awkward, however, as both of the fighters simply enjoyed the other's company. After the years of being stuck together, friendship was the only option. It was a tight bond that Squall knew would carry on for a long time. He still didn't relish letting her go."Yuffie," he finally spoke into the chill morning air. She looked up at him and stilled her movements. "Aerith wants me to hurry with you here, so I'm only going to give you one more lesson. After you leave here today, it's over and you never have to learn anything from me again. But I want you to listen to me now."Yuffie nodded and listened to the silence, waiting for him to speak. Squall fumbled for the right words to say. He wanted them to have impact. He wanted them to have weight and meaning to Yuffie. Most of all, he wanted them to reveal to both of them what the alien feeling inside of him was."In your life, there'll be treasures," he began. "Treasures meaning munny, jewels, and precious items. Things that may carry much weight in the world, but not in our hearts. And then there will be people you will remember for the rest of your life, people who mean something to you. You will find people to love, people to hate. And yet all of them are important. You will make friends, lose friends, fall in and out of love. So, let me tell you this," he said and took a deep breath, exhaling slowly and savoring the feeling of almost-completion. "Not all treasure is silver and gold."Yuffie looked up to him with a question in her eyes, not quite comprehending what he was saying. He gave her one, long, meaningful glance before exiting the Waterway. The spell was broken, and she was finally out on her own. But why did she feel so awful about it?Not wanting to swim through the murky, green water, she put her shoes back on and exited via the floating slab of rock to Merlin's cave. The old man greeted her cheerily, but the heavy cloud lurked just over her head. She left the house with a brief wave to the Fairy Godmother and carefully jumped along the stone platforms to the exit.Her heart was still trying to figure out Squall's hidden meaning. In all of their years of training together, she had learned that the Gunblade wielder's words always held a secret with them. When she was younger, Yuffie was never able to guess at his meanings, on the surface or otherwise. But as she grew older and more knowledgeable, the words held more and more information for the shinobi. For the life of her, she couldn't decipher what he meant with his last statement.So, with a troubled, confused heart, she made her way back to the Hotel where Aerith would commence to fuss over her until her big birthday party. The Flower Girl had gone so far as to invite almost all of Traverse Town, and Yuffie was more than surprised that most of the people had responded. She was also embarrassed, as she knew she could never look good enough to impress anybody. The guys wouldn't be flocking around her like Aerith said they would, and all of the young women would shun her, as she had never been prone to hang around them. The party would be miserable for her, she was sure.As predicted, Aerith was all business as she straightened and fixed Yuffie's unruly, shoulder-length mop of hair. Yuffie decided on which outfit to wear out of the ones Aerith had picked for her. She chose the navy blue and cream tank top and a long navy skirt. Yuffie wore a practical pair of tennis shoes and Aerith was finally satisfied enough with Yuffie's hair to work on her makeup.Usually, Yuffie protested to getting all dolled up, but that day was different. She had too much on her mind to make any sort of ruckus. Besides, she was eighteen. Yuffie was no longer a child, and she needed to start acting like it.Someone knocked at the door just as Aerith was finishing up with Yuffie. The pink-clad woman opened the wooden door and smiled at her husband, the owner of the Buster sword. Cloud came into the Red Room and smiled at Yuffie's reflection. She couldn't help but grin back at the man she had always sort of admired."Yuf, the party is going to start in an hour, and we need the guest of honor down there. So, hurry up here, okay? And there's lots of presents there too, just so you know." He had a mischievous smirk on his face that Yuffie found comical. She stood and gave him a quick hug."Yuffie! Don't! You'll mess up that hair that I worked so hard on!" Aerith chided her. Yuffie frowned and sat back down, but she and Cloud smiled at one another with their secret joke before he left the room."Honestly, he can have the worst timing..." Aerith said fondly, applying mascara to Yuffie's eyes. The ninja was glad that Cloud and Aerith had found each other finally, after all of those years. They had been married now for a year and Aerith was already sporting the pregnant look.As soon as Aerith was done with her makeup, Yuffie went to the bathroom to change into her outfit. Of course, she had put it on wrong and Aerith had to fix it, fashion it just so, so that the birthday girl would look perfect. Finally, they were both satisfied with her appearance and Aerith looked to the large clock on the wall."Oh my! It's already eleven. Come on, we've got to get down there before Cloud decides we're not coming!" Aerith said frantically, grabbing Yuffie's hand and pulling her out of the room and towards the Third District.The Second District was empty save for a small piece of paper that fluttered in the slight breeze. It rolled and waved in the wind, flying out over the fountain and finally falling to its doom in the cool, clear liquid. Yuffie couldn't help but feel like that page; she was being pulled in all different directions and she couldn't make her own way.Finally, they arrived at the doors to the Third District and Aerith opened them to reveal a brightly decorated square with balloons and streamers and all kinds of fun things. Yuffie couldn't help but think that this looked all too much like a child's party. In a sense, she knew why they would decorate like this. To them, she was a child. She acted like a child, so therefore she was thought of as a child. It made her disappointed in herself.There were already a few guests milling around in the square, and when they saw her, a resounding call of "Happy Birthday, Yuffie!" met her ears. She forced a smile onto her face when she saw Squall standing there, a somber expression gracing his handsome features. He was the only one not enjoying himself. Well, other than Yuffie.True, the party idea was thoughtful, and it would be fun. But Yuffie really didn't think that that was what being an adult was all about. It wasn't about partying and celebrating. It was a major step, and she just didn't appreciate the party as much as she probably should. Yuffie figured she had spent too much time with Squall, and had adopted many of his opinions as her own.The party lasted on into the night; the disc jockey Cloud hired pumping up the volume on big crowd pleasers. Yuffie enjoyed the dancing, letting her body free to express itself and get out the tension of the day. Several guys asked to dance with her on the slower songs, and she obliged, if not totally happy about it. There was only one guy who she would happily accept an invitation from. But she shouldn't have been thinking about him in that way. After all, he was her friend, her guru of sorts. Squall Leonhart could never be more. Although in some instances, she wished he could be.She received numerous gifts of munny, clothing, jewelry, the sorts of things any girl would absolutely love to have. But it wasn't enough for Yuffie. It was like Squall's words haunted her as she opened the presents. Nevertheless, she put on her happy-go-lucky face and thanked everyone for all of their gifts.Yuffie was exhausted by the end of the night, and told Aerith that she was going back to the Hotel to sleep. In reality, she was going to find Squall, who was elusive and left the party the minute he knew he wasn't going to be noticed. He wasn't noticed by anyone except for Yuffie.She scoured Traverse Town, checking out all of his usual haunts. He wasn't even in the training cavern, which worried Yuffie. Where could he be? Was he hurt? Was he dead? While she doubted the latter, the former sounded all too scary to her and she quickened her efforts to find the Gunblade wielder. She finally decided to check the very last place she would expect him to be, on top of the Gizmo Shop.The wind was billowing around her tiny frame, and it was chilly. Yuffie climbed up the rickety old ladder to the roof. She looked around for Squall to be there, to be anywhere, but she couldn't find him. Yuffie could not see him."You shouldn't be out this late alone, Yuf," someone said from behind her. She whirled around and faced the very man she was looking for, and avoiding. Yuffie finally admitted that she could have found him right away. But she had been avoiding Squall from the morning. Too many heavy thoughts were on her mind."Yes, well... I was looking for you," she replied uneasily. Yuffie turned away and walked over to the ledge, sitting down and not looking at him. "I've been thinking.""I'm surprised you even had the time to think. You have been busy all day," he deadpanned, and for a moment, Yuffie wondered if he was angry with her for something. "But go ahead and tell me. As friends.""Yeah, I guess this is the first time you're not my teacher. Kind of odd, really. I'm so used to taking orders from you, that... well, anyway." She sighed and looked out over the lantern-lit Second District. No one was about except for the occasional guest from her party. The stores were all closed and the signs and colorful fluorescent lights all turned off. She knew that this would be the right time to tell him, and yet she was afraid."I was thinking about what you said this morning, about treasures. And I was confused by it for a while. But then I got to thinking, and I realized that the answer was plain as the nose on my face and I had to be an idiot not to notice it." She took a deep breath and continued to not look at Squall. "I have a treasure. A real treasure. And I didn't even know it. Now I do, however, and I feel like I have truly learned your last lesson. I feel like I really am an adult now, not just the child in a woman's body.""Yes, you are a woman. But what is your treasure?" He asked, and if Yuffie were any good at deciphering meanings in voices, she would have noticed that he was being unusually gentle and kind."My treasure is you, Squall. Because I'm in love with you. It's so obvious to me that I can't believe I never saw it before!" She stood and lifted up her arms to the sky. "I mean, we used to be friends, but then it started evolving into something more and I never noticed. Not until now. And I feel so much better after letting it go! I realize that you probably will never love me," she rambled loudly, laughing, "but I love you and I will always-"She was cut off when Squall abruptly grabbed her and kissed her breathless. When he let her go, she stared at him, wide-eyed and surprised. He had a loving smile on his lips, and his gaze spoke only tenderness."I was hoping you'd come to that conclusion. Although I never expected it. Yuffie, I've loved you for a long time, longer than I can remember just when it started. I never thought you'd be ready to accept it, however, so I tried to push my feelings away. When I finally told you... I never thought that you would ever utter those words.""So I'm your treasure?" She laughed, falling into his arms and laying her cheek against his chest."Yuffie, you're worth more than all the silver and gold in the universe. Yes, you are my treasure." And in that moment, there was only Squall and Yuffie. Nothing else mattered.

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**[a/n] **Tell me what you think! I'd appreciate as many reviews as possible


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